Array-type light-emitting device and apparatus thereof

ABSTRACT

The application discloses an array-type light-emitting device comprising a substrate, a semiconductor light-emitting array formed on the substrate and emitting a first light with a first spectrum, wherein the semiconductor light-emitting array comprises a first light-emitting unit and a second light-emitting units, a first wavelength conversion layer formed on the first light-emitting unit for converting the first light into a third light with a third spectrum, and a circuit layer connecting the first light-emitting unit and the second light-emitting unit in a connection form to make the first light-emitting and the second light-emitting unit light alternately in accordance with a predetermined clock when driving by a power supply.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of co-pending application Ser. No.12/711,739, filed on Feb. 24, 2010, for which priority is claimed under35 U.S.C. §120; and this application claims priority of Application No.098105908 filed in Taiwan on Feb. 24, 2009 under 35 U.S.C. §119, theentire contents of all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure disclosed an array-type light-emitting device,and a display apparatus which incorporates the preceding array-typelight-emitting device.

2. Description of the Related Art

It became feasible to utilize Light Emitting Diode (LED) as a lightsource in the lighting industry since the blue light LED was presentedto the public. White light is the dominant source used for illuminationwhich is generated mainly from two different methods: the first methodis to mix lights from red, blue and green LEDs and generating a whitelight, another well known method is to package a blue light LED togetherwith yellow fluorescent powder.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure is to provide a novel LED chip structure and adisplay apparatus, which can be used broadly in different light sources.

One aspect of the present disclosure provides a light-emitting devicecomprising a substrate; a semiconductor light-emitting arrayinsulatively formed on the substrate and emitting a first light beamcomprising a first spectrum, wherein the semiconductor light-emittingarray comprises a first light-emitting unit and a second light-emittingunit; a first wavelength conversion layer formed on the firstlight-emitting unit and radiating a second light beam having a secondspectrum excited by the first light beam; a second conversion layer isformed on the second light-emitting unit and radiating a third lightbeam having a third spectrum different from the second spectrum. Thefirst and the second light-emitting units are connected by an electriccircuit layer with electric circuit configuration and can be driven by apower source to emit light beams alternatively with a predeterminedclock.

Another aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a displayapparatus comprising an array-type light-emitting device. The displayapparatus with a plurality of pixels comprises a backlight module, aliquid crystal module above the backlight module, a color filter moduleabove the liquid crystal module, and a control module to control thebacklight module and the liquid crystal module. The backlight modulecomprises a light-emitting device as a light source for the displayapparatus. The color filter module comprises a plurality of light filtersegments corresponding to the plurality of pixels on the displayapparatus wherein the plurality of light filter segments comprises afirst filter segment to block all light beams except for the first lightbeam comprising the first spectrum, and a transparent segment which doesnot function as a filter. An embodiment derived from this aspectincludes a first light-emitting unit which emits a first light beam witha first spectrum, a second light-emitting unit which emits a secondlight beam with a second spectrum, and a electric circuit unitconnecting the first light-emitting unit and the second light-emittingunit in a connecting configuration. Therefore the first and the secondlight-emitting unit emits light beam alternatively with a predeterminedclock when the display apparatus is driven by a power source.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide easy understanding ofthe application, and are incorporated herein and constitute as part ofthis specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of theapplication and, together with the description, serve to illustrate theprinciples of the application.

FIG. 1 illustrates the top view of a light-emitting diode chip of thefirst embodiment in accordance with the present application.

FIG. 2 is a cross section view of a light-emitting diode chip of thefirst embodiment in accordance with the present application.

FIG. 3 illustrates the schematic diagram of the designed circuit and itswaveform of the second embodiment in accordance with the presentapplication.

FIG. 4 is a cross section view of a light-emitting diode chip of thesecond embodiment in accordance with the present application.

FIG. 5 is a top view of a light-emitting diode chip of the thirdembodiment in accordance with the present application.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a display apparatus in accordancewith the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DISCLOSURE

FIG. 1 shows a top view of a light-emitting diode chip 110, whichcomprises a 2×2 light-emitting array. The light-emitting diode chip 110comprises four light-emitting units; a first light-emitting unit R1, asecond light-emitting unit R2, a third light-emitting unit R3 and afourth light-emitting unit R4. These four light-emitting units areconnected by an electric circuit layer 118 but physically insulatedseparated from each other and insulatively formed on a growth substrate111. Wavelength conversion layers 117-1, 117-2, 117-3 and 117-4 areplaced on the light-emitting units R1, R2, R3 and R4 respectively. FIG.3 illustrates a representative circuit schematic diagram and thewaveform of FIG. 1, wherein the connecting configuration for theelectric circuit layer 118 to connect the light-emitting unit R1 and R3is a serial connection; so does the configuration for the light-emittingunits R2 and R4. The connecting configuration to connect thelight-emitting units R1 and R3 and light-emitting units R2 and R4 is ananti-parallel connection, so both light-emitting units R1 and R3 andlight-emitting units R2 and R4 are connected to one power supply, whichcan be an alternating current (AC) power source.

FIG. 2 shows the cross section view of FIG. 1 cutting along the dottedline AA′. The light-emitting units R1 and R3 are commonly formed on thegrowth substrate 111 and physical separated from each other by a trench.Each of the light-emitting units R1 and R3 comprises a first contactlayer 112 epitaxially grown on the growth substrate 111; alight-emitting stack 113 which comprises a first cladding layer 1131 ofa first-type conductivity, an active layer 1132, and a second claddinglayer 1133 of a second-type conductivity epitaxially grown on the firstcontact layer 112 second contact layer 114 formed above the secondcladding layer 1133; a first electrode 116 formed on the first contactlayer 112; a second electrode 115 formed on a second contact layer 114;and a wavelength conversion layer 117-1 formed above the second contactlayer 114 of the light-emitting unit R1, and a wavelength conversionlayer 117-3 formed above a second contact layer 114 of thelight-emitting unit R3. The electric circuit layer 118 extends from thefirst electrode 116 of the light-emitting unit R1 to the secondelectrode 115 of the light-emitting unit R3, therefore R1 and R3 areconnected in serial. And as shown in FIG. 1, a second electrode 115 inthe light-emitting unit R2 is connected by the electric circuit layer118 to the first electrode 116 in the light-emitting unit R4; moreover,the electric circuit layer 118 further connects the second electrode 115of the first light-emitting unit R1 and the first electrode 116 of thesecond light-emitting unit R2 to the positive pole of an alternatingcurrent (AC) power source. Same connection applied to the firstelectrode 116 of the light-emitting unit R3 and the second electrode 115of the light-emitting unit R4 via the electric circuit layer 118 buttied with the negative pole of the AC power source. Therefore, theserial linked light-emitting units R1 and R3 are connected with theserial linked light-emitting units R2 and R4 in an anti-parallelconfiguration. In another embodiment, the light-emitting diode chip 110further comprises an current spreading layer (not shown in the drawing)formed between the second contact layer 114 and the second electrode 115to spread the current evenly on the surface of the light-emitting diodechip 110. The resistivity of the current spreading layer is lower thanthat of the second contact layer 114.

As shown in FIG. 2, the light-emitting diode chip 110 further comprisesan insulation layer 119 formed along the side walls of the electriccircuit layer 118 and the light-emitting units R1 and R3, and formedbetween the growth substrate 111 and the electric circuit layer 118, toavoid the short circuit between the light-emitting units R1 and R3caused by the electric circuit layer 118. Each of the light-emittingunits R1, R2, R3 and R4 has the similar structure, i.e. the samelight-emitting film stack, such that they can emit a light with samespectrum. The wavelength conversion layer formed above eachlight-emitting unit can be various so each light-emitting unit can emita light with a different wavelength per different arrangement. In theembodiments in the present disclosure, the wavelength conversion layeris directly spread on the surface of the second contact layer 114 and isincorporated as a part of the light-emitting diode chip 110, and thesecond electrode 115 protrudes the wavelength conversion layer. Thewavelength conversion layers 117-1, 117-2, 117-3 and 117-4 comprise atleast one material selected from a group consisting of blue fluorescentpowder, yellow fluorescent powder, green fluorescent power, redfluorescent powder, ZnSe, ZnCdSe, III-Phosphide, III-Arsenide, andIII-Nitride. The function of the blue fluorescent powder is to convertthe incident light beam into a blue light. Similarly for a yellow, greenand red fluorescent powder. All the materials and the content of thefluorescent powder are in the related arts.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, a lighting apparatus 101 comprises alight-emitting diode chip 110 exemplified in FIGS. 1 and 2, and analternating current (AC) power supply which is connected with thelight-emitting diode chip 110. TABLE 1 shows the examples of differentcombinations of the light spectrum emitted from the light-emitting unitsR1˜R4 and the corresponding wavelength conversion layer of each unit,117-1 (for R1), 117-2 (for R2), 117-3 (for R3) and 117-4 (for R4);wherein the wavelength of the light emitted from R1˜R4 is a UV lightwith a wavelength ranging between 410˜430 nm or a blue light rangingbetween 440˜480 nm. Therefore the light-emitting diode chip 110 can emita white light mixed by different colors of lights, which are generatedby the conversion made by the wavelength conversion layers 117-1˜4respectively.

TABLE 1 Examples of Combination of Different Wavelength ConversionMaterial R1~R4 Wavelength Conversion Material Wavelength 117-1 117-2117-3 117-4 Example 1 410~430 nm Yellow Red Blue Green Example 2 410~430nm Green Yellow Blue Green Example 3 410~430 nm Yellow Green Blue GreenExample 4 410~430 nm Red Green Blue Green Example 5 440~480 nm Red Green— Green

Example 1 in TABLE 1 shows the material of the wavelength conversionlayers 117-1-4 consisting of yellow, red, blue and green fluorescentpowder respectively. During the positive half wave of the alternatingcurrent (AC) power source, the light-emitting unit R1 and thelight-emitting unit R3 respectively emits a near UV light withwavelength approximately ranging between 410˜430 nm. The near UV lightfrom the light-emitting unit R1 is converted by the wavelengthconversion layer 117-1 with yellow fluorescent powder and radiating ayellow light with wavelength ranging between 570˜595 nm. The near LTVlight from the light-emitting unit R3 is converted by the wavelengthconversion layer 117-3 with blue fluorescent powder and radiating a bluelight with wavelength ranging between 440˜480 nm. When the alternatingcurrent AC power source switch to the negative half wave, thelight-emitting unit R2 and the light-emitting unit R4 respectively emitsa near UV light with wavelength approximately ranging between 410˜430nm, The near UV light from the light-emitting unit R2 is converted bythe wavelength conversion layer 117-2 with red fluorescent powder andradiating a red light with wavelength ranging between 600˜650 nm. Thenear UV light from the light-emitting unit R4 is converted by thewavelength conversion layer 117-4 with green fluorescent powder andradiating a green light with wavelength ranging between 500˜560 nm. Thered and green lights generated during the negative half wave are mixedwith the yellow and blue lights generated during the positive half wave;such that the light-emitting diode chip 110 emits a white light. Foranother embodiment in the present disclosure, the wavelength conversionlayer can be formed optionally on the light-emitting units R1˜R4 asExample 5 in TABLE 1. Because the light-emitting diode chip 110 radiateslight by zones in accordance with the frequency of the alternatingcurrent (AC), and each of the wavelength conversion layers is onlyspread on the respective light-emitting unit, the loss of lightintensity from unnecessary secondary conversion caused by differentwavelength conversion layers can be reduced effectively. Wherein thefrequency of the alternating current (AC) power is 60 Hz or itsmultiples.

To enhance the heat dissipation, the growth substrate 111 of thelight-emitting diode chip 110 as shown in FIG. 2 can be removed andreplaced by a supporting substrate 121 bonded with the first contactlayer 112 via a non-single crystalline bonding layer 123 as theembodiment illustrated in FIG. 4. Moreover, if the supporting substrate121 is not transparent, an anti-reflection layer 122 can be formedbetween the first contact layer 112 and the non-single crystallinebonding layer 123 to avoid the light emitted from the light-emittingdiode being absorbed by the supporting substrate 121.

FIG. 5 shows a light-emitting device 501 comprising a 4×4 array-typelight-emitting diode chip 510 and a power source connected to twoterminals of the light-emitting diode chip 510. The light-emitting diodechip 510 comprises a light-emitting unit R1, a light-emitting unit R2, alight-emitting unit R3, and a light-emitting unit R4, which are physicalseparated to each other and insulatively formed on a growth substrate511; wherein the light-emitting units R1˜R4 respectively represents aserially linked 1×4 light-emitting array and are electrically connectedby an electric circuit layer 518 in a connecting configuration.Wavelength conversion layers 517-1, 517-2, 517-3 and 517-4 are formedrespectively on the light-emitting units R1, R2, R3 and R4. Wherein theconnecting configuration for the electric circuit layer 518 to connectthe light-emitting unit R1 and R3 is a serial connection; so is theconfiguration for the light-emitting units R2 and R4. The connectingconfiguration to connect the light-emitting units R1 and R3 andlight-emitting units R2 and R4 is an anti-parallel connection, so bothlight-emitting units R1 and R3 and light-emitting units R2 and R4 areconnected to two terminals of a power supply 520 which can be analternating current (AC) power source. Because the light-emitting diodechip 510 radiates light by zones in accordance with the frequency of thealternating current (AC), and each wavelength conversion layer is onlyspread on the respective light-emitting unit, the loss of lightintensity from unnecessary secondary conversion caused by differentwavelength conversion layers can be reduced effectively.

The area of the light-emitting diode chip as described in all theembodiments in the present disclosure is smaller than 5 mm² or 2 mm² inorder to be assembled in a package or formed on an electric circuitplatform. A preferred size of the chip is to fit for current commercialor industrial standard specification, such as 12 mil×12 mil, 25 mil×25mil, 45 ml×45 mil, or 55 ml×55 mil, etc.

FIG. 6 shows a display apparatus in the present disclosure. A displayapparatus 600 with a plurality of pixels comprises a backlight module601, a first polarizing module 602 formed above the backlight module601, a thin film transistor module 603 formed above the first polarizingmodule 602, a liquid crystal display module 604 formed above the thinfilm transistor module 603, a second polarizing module 605 formed abovethe liquid crystal display module 604, a color filter module 606 formedabove the second polarizing module 605 and a control module 607, whichcomprising an electrical control circuit to control the modules in thedisplay apparatus 600. Wherein the backlight module 601 furthercomprises a light-emitting device 610 which provides the light sourcefor the display apparatus 600. The light-emitting device 610 can be anytype light-emitting source or the light-emitting diode chip 110 (seeFIG. 1) as described in the embodiments in the present disclosure withthe conversion layer 117-1-417-4 with different combinations as shown inTABLE 1. Exemplified by example 4 in TABLE 1, the materials ofwavelength conversion layers, 17-1, 117-2, 117-3, and 117-4,respectively comprises red, green, blue and green fluorescent powder.When electric current from an alternating current (AC) power source isin positive half wave, the light-emitting unit R1 and the light-emittingunit R3 are driven to emit a near UV light with wavelength approximatelyranging between 410˜430 nm. Following the light emission from thelight-emitting units R1 and R3, the near UV light is convertedrespectively by the wavelength conversion layer 117-1 formed on thelight-emitting unit R1 with red fluorescent powder and the wavelengthconversion layer 117-3 formed on the light-emitting unit R3 with bluefluorescent powder. Such that the light-emitting units R1 and R3respectively emits a red light with wavelength ranging between 600˜650nm and a blue light with wavelength approximately ranging between440˜480 nm after the conversion.

When the AC power source switches to the negative half wave, thelight-emitting unit R2 and the light-emitting unit R4 are driven to emita near UV light with wavelength approximately ranging between 410˜430nm. Following the light emission from the light-emitting units R2 andR4, the near UV light is converted respectively by the wavelengthconversion layer 117-2 formed on the light-emitting unit R2 with greenfluorescent powder and the wavelength conversion layer 117-4 formed onthe light-emitting unit R4 with green fluorescent powder. Such that thelight-emitting units R3 and R4 respectively emits a green light withwavelength ranging between 500˜560 nm after the conversion. The liquidcrystal display module 604 comprises a plurality of liquid crystalsegments respectively corresponding to the plurality of the pixels inthe display apparatus 600. The color filter module 606 comprises aplurality of red color filter segments R for filtering out light beamsexcept for red light with wavelength ranging between 600 to 650 nm, aplurality of blue color filter segments B for filtering out light beamsexcept for blue light with wavelength ranging between 440 to 480 nm, anda plurality of transparent segments C which is transparent to visiblelights; such that it does not function like color filters. Because thered, blue and green light emitted from the backlight module 601alternates in accordance with the predetermined clock of the AC powersource, the backlight module 601 emits red and blue lights when thedriving AC current is in positive half wave, and through the red colorfilter segments R and the blue color filter segments B in the colorfilter module 606 to emit red and blue lights. When the AC current is innegative half wave, the backlight module 601 only emits green light andthe display apparatus 600 emits green light directly through thetransparent segments C without any formed green filter segments on thecolor filter module 606. Wherein the transparent segments C comprises atransparent material or a gap. The red color filter segments, R, bluecolor filter segments, B, and transparent segments C have substantiallythe same width, area and/or volume. For other parts shown in the displayapparatus 600 and not mentioned or described in detail can be found inthe related arts.

For all the embodiments in the present disclosure, materials used forthe first contact layer, the first cladding layer, the second claddinglayer, the second contact layer and the active layer comprises III-Vcompound, Al_(x)In_(y)Ga_((1-x-y))N, wherein x≧0,y≦1 and (x+y)≦1; x andy are both positive numbers. The dopant of the first cladding layer canbe an n-type impurity, like Si, or a p-type impurity, like Mg or Zn. Thedopant type of the second cladding layer is opposite to the type for thefirst cladding layer. The electric current spreading layer comprisestransparent metal oxide, such as Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), metal, or metalalloy. The growth substrate comprises at least one material such assapphire, silicon carbide, GaN and AlN. The supporting substratecomprises at least one material such as GaP, sapphire, SIC, GaN, andAlN. Materials for the supporting substrate may be also selected from athermal conductive material group comprising diamond, DLC, ZnO, Au, Ag,Al, and other metals. Materials for the non-single crystalline bondinglayer comprises at least one material selected from a group consistingof metal oxide, non-metal oxide, polymer, metal and metal alloy.

The foregoing description has been directed to the specific embodimentsof this application. It will be apparent; however, that other variationsand modifications may be made to the embodiments without escaping thespirit and scope of the application.

I claim:
 1. A display apparatus, comprising: a liquid crystal module; acolor filter module; and a light-emitting device configured to emitlight passing through the liquid crystal module and the color filtermodule, and comprising: a substrate; a first light-emitting unit; asecond light-emitting unit; a trench physically separating the firstlight-emitting unit from the second light-emitting unit on thesubstrate; and an electric circuit layer connecting the firstlight-emitting unit with the second light-emitting unit on thesubstrate.
 2. The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein the substrate isa growth substrate.
 3. The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein each ofthe first light-emitting unit and the second light-emitting unitcomprises a layer epitaxially grown on the substrate.
 4. The displayapparatus of claim 1, wherein the light-emitting device furthercomprises an insulating layer between the electric circuit layer and thefirst light-emitting unit.
 5. The display apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe light-emitting device further comprises an insulating layer betweenthe electric circuit layer and the substrate.
 6. The display apparatusof claim 1, wherein the light-emitting device further comprises aninsulating layer covering the first light-emitting unit and thesubstrate.
 7. The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein thelight-emitting device further comprises an insulating layer having twoend points located at different elevations.
 8. The display apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the light-emitting device further comprises awavelength conversion layer formed on the first light-emitting unit. 9.The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first light-emitting unitis unpackaged.
 10. The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein thelight-emitting device is configured to emit a white light.
 11. Thedisplay apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first light-emitting unit andthe second light-emitting unit are electrically connected in series oranti-parallel.
 12. The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein thelight-emitting device further comprises a non-single crystal bondinglayer between the substrate and the first light-emitting unit.
 13. Alight-emitting device, comprising: a first light-emitting unit having afirst bottom surface and configured to emit a first light in a firsthalf wave; and a second light-emitting unit having a second bottomsurface substantially coplanar with the first bottom surface andconfigured to emit a second light visually mixable with the first lightas a white light, in a second half wave different from the first halfwave.
 14. The light-emitting device of claim 13, wherein the first lightis a white light and different from the second light.
 15. Thelight-emitting device of claim 13, further comprising a first wavelengthconversion layer arranged on the first light-emitting unit.
 16. Thelight-emitting device of claim 13, wherein the first light comprises awavelength ranging between 410 nm˜430 nm or 440 nm˜480 nm.
 17. Thelight-emitting device of claim 13, wherein the first light comprises awavelength ranging between 500 nm˜560 nm, 570 nm˜595 nm, or 600 nm˜650nm.
 18. The light-emitting device of claim 13, wherein the second lightcomprises a wavelength ranging between 440 nm˜480 nm, 500 nm˜560 nm, 570nm˜595 nm, or 600 nm˜650 nm.
 19. The light-emitting device of claim 13,wherein none of the first light and the second light is a white light.20. The light-emitting device of claim 13, further comprising; a commonsubstrate; and a trench formed between the first light-emitting unit andthe second light-emitting unit on the common substrate.